Lost Peter Paltridge Comics
Peter Paltridge, before his start on the Internet, wrote several comics before Scrambled Eggs. Here are some descriptions in Peter's own words. Those Two Boys Before this, I had drawn comics as well...silly little slapstick things. But this was my first steady, regular series. Those Two Boys were Mark and Alex(no last names). Alex was originally named Jeffrey, but then I saw a Family Ties episode and decided I liked Alex better. In the first issue, they looked for the Baby New Year, found him, and then all three pigged out at Burger King noisily. You might be thinking, "For the first time, Those Two Boys isn't a bad title at all." Well, you have to realize I based the characters on two loud older kids in the YMCA locker room who kept chasing each other and yelling. Since I didn't know their names, their first comic just said "Those two boys." And just so the information is complete, their first appearance PRIOR to appearing in their own series was "Fighting Jets," from '88. Anyway, speaking of bad titles... The Rad Kids So....what was this? Um, as best I can remember, the first issue was some kid gathering firewood while the other kid slept. This WAS pretty rad. One kid's name was Micah, the other kid had no name. Mill Park Champs This was a comic about my first-grade classroom. Riding on the success of Honey I Shrunk the Kids, in the issue I've got you had Caitlyn Canales making inventions and testing them out on people. Caitlyn was real(so was everyone else in this series), but don't think my putting her in there was a gesture of niceness...I enjoyed driving her crazy and knew she'd hate this as well. The series was soon renamed School Daze in Second Grade, then obliterated altogether when I started the "Classroom Volumes," collections of stories that were based on actual events in class, but then exaggerated to amusing proportions. Rad Matt in Disneyland This wasn't really a series, I drew it while my friend Matt Nodurft was at Disneyland, and planned to give it to him when he came back. I never did, but I also lost the comic a few years later. It's just as well...I recall many jokes in that one revolving around his older sister having an annoying obsession with loud radios. Maybe I just wasn't thinking at the time... his sister was fucking deaf! Brandon! This was INTENDED to be a series, but went the same way as "Rad Matt." Back in TAG, cool kid Brandon Harer had this military operation going. He was the head, we were of various ranks below him. Anthony was "Sergeant Pallermini," I was "Corporal Funny." (Because.... guess I was funny.) I attempted to make a comic out of it here. I guess if I hadn't, I wouldn't even remember this. Peter Paltridge's Annual Taking an idea from Marvel, this super-sized comic featured Those Two Boys, The Rad Kids, and Mill Park Champs adventures, all in one package. The next Easter, I did another one. The intent was for every Annual to have a "new comic character." This one had a comic called "BLAIR!?!?!?!?!!" and that was intended to be a series, but it never became one. Blair lived in the same apartments as me and had about 5 sisters. The jokes wrote themselves in this situation... A Day In The Life of Matt Wilson Hands down, the worst series I ever invented. I absolutely, positively hate this. This one was a combination of Archie and Richie Rich, all rolled up into Matt Wilson, the slick teenager who got $1,000 from the President every day(because he lived in Washington DC, duh). His house had to be a million times a million square feet, and I think his car was the same size. He had all the money and all the babes, and he used 60's slang like "Dig it!" and "Groovy." His room had a dance hall for all his chicks, a thought-reading baseball card machine that could give you any card you wanted(I was really into collecting baseball cards--I was a kid in the days before monsters got their own cards), and a BIRD AVIARY. Did I mention I hate this? I HATE IT. He went to "GEORGE WASHINGTON HIGH!!!" and stored his stuff in Locker #1, including the Honus Wagner Card(the most valuable baseball card in the world). It was at this scene in the story that someone hiding in the shadows said, "I have to get that card! After all, I am Matt's bully!" I think the bully was the only vaguely good thing about the series. The bully would always try to get Matt, but he'd always fail. Reading these later, I rooted for him. The series ended in issue 3 when Matt brought a shrinking machine to school with plans to shrink the bully, point and laugh, "Yok, yok." The bully stole it instead, aimed it at Matt, fired and stepped on him. That was the end of the series. The only good thing about this was that I had the insight to know Matt should die.